Despite being one of the quirkiest watches in the Seiko catalog, the Seiko Alpinist SPB121 is one of the brand's best-selling watches; in fact, it was the single best-selling Seiko watch we saw during the holidays. As much as its strange attributes, when compiled as a list of features, sound like it could never work in unison, it does, sticking the landing with the added benefit of 200 meters of water resistance and serving as an entry point for the 6R35 calibers.
Towards the end of last year, Seiko unveiled an elevated version of the formula, releasing three new references that share many of the characteristics, increasing some of the specs, along with upping the price a couple of hundred dollars in the process. Now we have all three of the new watches in hand, along with the best-selling SPB121, to discuss what is new with these pieces and consider whether the extra dollars being asked are worth it compared to the SPB121.